WIMBLEDON: Maria Sharapova Double-Faulting Her Way to the Top

It’s a nice story, that Maria Sharapova is back in the final at Wimbledon. It’s about courage and patience and stick-to-itiveness. It’s great for women’s tennis, which gets the star power it needs in its biggest moment.

But I’ve already talked about that stuff. And after watching her semifinal match, I would like to talk about what stood out most: Sharapova’s serve. What does it say about women’s tennis that someone who can’t serve might win Wimbledon? And what does it say about Sharapova that she can compartmentalize so well that she’s a nervous wreck on the most important shot in tennis, yet a killer everywhere else?

At some point, quality of play has to sell the sport beyond Sharapova’s looks. Her 6-4, 6-3 win Thursday against Sabine Lisicki was awful. It’s nice to think of Lisicki as a rising star, just 21. Good for her. But in the big moment, she lost her serve, too.

It’s fun to see Sharapova back to the top, and her mental toughness on all but one part of her game. But while it’s impressive that she can do this with one hand tied behind her back – her serve hand – it’s not encouraging that no one is making her pay for that. The other semifinal saw Petra Kvitova beat Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 3-6, 6-2. In that one, Kvitova was great, then bad, then great again. She likes to crush the ball, and it goes in more often than it doesn’t.

So that sets up Saturday’s final between Sharapova and Kvitova. I’ll go with Sharapova, simply because she has been here before, even if it was 2004.

That’s what got her through on Thursday. At first, she couldn’t keep anything on the court, and Lisicki was strangely comfortable. But that can happen. The moment actually grows throughout a match.

And one point from going down 4-0, Sharapova survived for a few more minutes. Lisicki missed a dropshot, Sharapova held serve and then took off while Lisicki fell apart until the final few games, when it was too late.

We’ve seen a lot of players, usually women, get the yips on their serve. I remember asking Ana Ivanovic once about why a toss is so hard? You just lay the ball up there. She said she didn’t know. But she couldn’t do it anymore. Elena Dementieva was the best player in the world for a while. . .after her toss.

These things just get in your head, disrupt the rhythm of your thoughts. Remember when baseball player Steve Sax couldn’t throw the ball to first base anymore?

At some point, you’d think a mental block on one thing would spread like cancer to other parts of your psyche.

I liked what she was doing at the French Open, when she went for too much on her second serves. There is no point to standing there, panicking about missing a second serve, and the tentatively dumping it into the net. You couldn’t have accomplished anything with the dink serve, anyway. And it forced her to be aggressive on her most timid shot.

But on Thursday, she double-faulted 13 times in 66 serve points. That’s nearly one double fault for every five points. She got only 48 percent of her first serves in. And only 21 of 34 second serves.

She can’t even get two of every three second-serves in, but she’s about to win Wimbledon.

On Thursday, experience kept her from panicking. It was her mental toughness on groundstrokes. It was her never-ending fight. That’s what separates her from the other players on tour.

It’s what got her all the way back to the Wimbledon final after seven years, after shoulder surgery, after, and during, the yips. She could have reached the French Open final a few weeks ago, but double-faulted that away.

So she had to pay for that then. But she has been climbing the rankings, and is now No. 6, without a serve. I thought it would be a bad sign for the women’s tour if the Williams sisters were able to just walk in after half a year (Venus) or a year (Serena) with injuries and little practice, and win Wimbledon. Both lost in the fourth round.

But that Sharapova serve is just so awful that you’d think talented opponents wouldn’t let her get away with it. Novak Djokovic had the yips on his serve for a while, too. But he couldn’t win a major again until he got past it.

No one makes Sharapova pay. Amazingly enough, she is finding a way not to make herself pay for it, either. Can you really win Wimbledon with one hand tied behind your back?

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About gregcouch

I can talk tennis all day long, and often do. And yet some of the people I talk to about it might rather I talk about something else.
Or with someone else.
That’s how it is with tennis, right? Sort of an addiction. Sort of a high.
I am a national columnist at FoxSports.com and a FoxSports1 TV insider, and have been a columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times.
In 2010, I was the only American sports writer to cover the full two weeks of all four majors, and also to cover each of the U.S. Masters series events.
I’ve seen a lot of tennis, talked with a lot of players, coaches, agents.
I watched from a few rows behind the line judge as Serena rolled her foot onto the baseline for the footfault, a good call, at the 2009 U.S. Open. I sat forever watching a John Isner marathon, leaving for Wimbledon village to watch an England World Cup soccer game at a pub and then returning for hours of Isner, sitting a few feet from his wrecked coach.
I got to see Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling joke around on a practice court on the middle Sunday at Wimbledon, placing a small wager on a tiebreaker. Djokovic won, and Soderling pulled a bill out of his wallet, crumpled it into his fist and threw it at Djokovic, who unwadded it, kissed it, and told me, “My work is done here.’’
And when Rafael Nadal won the French Open in 2010, I finished my column, walked back out onto the court, and filled an empty tic tac container with the red clay. I’m looking at it right now.
Well, I don’t always see the game the same way others do. I can be hard on tennis, particularly on the characters in suits running it. Tennis has no less scandal and dirt than any other game. Yet somehow, it seems to be covered up, usually from an incredible web of conflicts of interest.
I promise to always tell the truth as I see it. Of course, I would appreciate it if you’d let me know when I’m wrong. I love sports arguments and hope to be in a few of them with you here.
Personal info: One-handed backhand, serve-and-volleyer.
View all posts by gregcouch

4 responses to “WIMBLEDON: Maria Sharapova Double-Faulting Her Way to the Top”

Maria’s always going to struggle with her serve from now to retirement. However, her winning yesterday was a credit to her. Sabine got there, and the occasion overwhelmed her. Hey, that’s tennis. IF Petra can hold her serve, she has a chance. We’ll see. I just hope it’s a good match and not a horrible match with some ugly tennis being played.

You say Sharapova double faulted her way to Wimbledon final and it makes women’s tennis look bad, I do endorse that fact. You also said that it would have looked bad if the Williams sisters had returned and won the tournament after being away so long but if anyone of the two had the draw that Sharapova had she would have won 2011 and 2012 Wimbledon by just playing today. What these people don’t realize is that they are doing Sharapova a grave injustice when she is allowed to win matches without having to play so that when she faces an opponent of high caliber she buckles if their nerves don’t get the better of them. I congratulate Kvitova on her win, I’m certainly not surprise and well pleased.

Greg Couch is an award-winning sports columnist based in Chicago. He covers college football for BleacherReport.com, NFL for RollingStone.com and freelances at several other places, including The New York Times. Lots of tennis, mostly here. He has traveled the world covering tennis and is a member of the International Tennis Writers Association. A former sports columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, his tennis writing has been in the book "The Best American Sportswriting."